Johor Darul Ta'zim: The Best of the Rest
The two-time winners sit in second spot behind Selangor, with Pahang Rangers in third breathing down their necks.
Johor Darul Ta'zim's season can be summarised in two numbers: one defeat, and ninety-six goals scored in twelve matches. Under new head coach Joao Almeida, appointed to succeed the man who delivered back-to-back titles, JDT have lost almost nothing in transition, sitting second in the MPFL 2026 table with ten wins, a draw and that single loss, a 3-5 defeat to Selangor in Circuit 3 that remains the only blemish on an otherwise ruthless campaign.
A 17-0 demolition of Wipers in Circuit 5 and a 15-1 win over PFA Odin Sarawak in Circuit 7 sit either side of a string of comfortable wins over KL City, USM and Pahang Rangers, the latter secured 5-4 in the most recent round of fixtures to keep JDT within touching distance of Selangor at the top.
The personalities behind that record have shifted subtly across the season. Bruno Taffy and Andresito were the early standouts, scoring freely in the opening circuits, while Mohamad Awalludin has been capable of the kind of four-goal afternoons that turned the PFA Odin fixture into a rout. More recently it has been Mahadir Harahap who has taken over as the team's most consistent source of goals and Player of the Match awards, scoring in bunches through Circuits 6 and 7 and emerging as arguably the form player in the division outside Selangor's own front line.
The frustration, if JDT have one, is that none of this has closed the gap at the top by very much. Eight points still separate the two sides with two circuits remaining, and Selangor's superior head-to-head record, that 3-5 win in Circuit 3, means JDT cannot simply match Selangor's results from here; they likely need Selangor to slip at some point, but they have shown no sign of slipping at all this season.
What JDT can control is making sure their own position for the play-off round, and eventually the semi-finals, is beyond doubt. Just a three-point cushion over third-placed Pahang Rangers means there's still work to do to secure second spot and automatic qualification alongside Selangor. For a club used to being the benchmark in Malaysian futsal, finishing second to a genuinely unbeaten side would be no disgrace; the more relevant question, as it always is in a knockout format, is whether this JDT side can still be the team standing at the end of it.
There is a broader context worth setting alongside JDT's own numbers. This is a club that has won back-to-back MPFL titles and entered the 2026 season as champions, and a single defeat in twelve outings under a first-year head coach is, by most reasonable measures, a smooth transition rather than a difficult one. The concern for JDT, if there is one, is less about form and more about timing: Selangor's perfect record means JDT's own excellent season has so far bought them nothing beyond keeping the gap from widening further, and with two circuits left, closing an eight-point deficit against a side that has not lost all season is a tall order regardless of how many goals JDT continue to score against everyone else.
